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Friday News Wrap-Up 9 March 2012

It seems like only four days ago I was covering the news of the week in the iOS world - ahhh how time flys! Silliness aside, this does spread things a little thin and in place of any missing news I've extended our mini-review this week a little bit to compensate - it's not much, but definitely deserving of the attention.

This is the Friday News Wrap-Up for the 9th of March, 2012.

Crytek Going Mobile

Developer Crytek has long been rumored to be bringing a version of their high-tech 3D CryEngine to the mobile platform, but they've been more tight-lipped about their intentions on bringing something playable to the table... that is until now. Unveiled at GDC, the developer is bringing out Fibble Flick Rock 'n'n Roll - predictably it's a physics based puzzler and no, it's not powered by the CryEngine, but yes it does look pretty. With any luck we'll see release in spring.

Panic Flight from AMA

With titles like Jetpack Joyride and Whale Trail (amongst others) having already paved the way, AMA's Panic Flight seeks to extend the experience by packaging in a single-player mode that focuses more on skilled piloting instead of the usual endless gameplay. The game itself is slated to be free with in-app purchases being used to modify the planes or provide perks such as larger fuel tanks. Interestingly, the game will be paired with the Papaya social gaming network, so those playing on iOS can still keep in touch with those on the Android platform. Panic Flight is scheduled for a spring release.

25 Billion And Counting

I'd be surprised if you missed this tidbit, but over the weekend the App Store finally passed 25 billion downloads with the 25 billionth download being a copy of Where's My Water? Free by iOS user Chunli Fu. As congratulations, Chunli Fu was awarded with a $10,000 voucher for the App Store. What makes this particularly scary as a number is how it breaks down - the milestone was reached after 3 years, 7 months and 23 days, which works out at roughly 19.2 million App downloads worldwide to reach the target.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - iOS

It's time to show my ignorance of the wider mobile gaming sphere as I have not had any personal dealings with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky by Nihon Falcom and Xseed Games, but the news of it coming to the iOS platform has caused no small amount of ripples out in the gaming community. In an interview with Famitsu it was said that the adaption will not be a direct port of the PSP title and may even include connectivity to the next major release in the series. More details as they're available.

When it comes to presentation, developer PikPok doesn't mess about - 'vibrant', 'colorful' and 'exciting' are generally always applicable to their work, with some efforts (such as their work on Monsters Ate My Condo) taking things to a whole new extreme level. Despite its clean appearance, Monster Flip is no less energetic, especially once you get in to the roll of things and kick off a huge combo, complete with the usual explosions and announcements of how cool you are. However this isn't your basic three-match title - players must reverse groups of three or more monsters in order to make matches. Sounds easy? It would be if not for the increasingly common 'angry' monster that appears on the board, providing you with a limited amount of turns before they explode and end your run. Thankfully there's more to the game than just a basic 'Arcade' style mode and players can quickly unlock a 'Puzzle' mode where they'll need to clear the board of monsters with a limited amount of moves; 'Countdown' sets a timer and quickly ramps up the difficulty; and last of all 'Sequence' provides something entirely unique - a preset board of Monsters that is the same for every player in the world; with only 50 moves available you'll compete with others on the leaderboards for coming up with the highest scoring sequence. Three-match games get a bad-wrap as they often imitate and fail to innovate - Monster Flip is more style than substance, but what is on offer is diverse, clever and best of all, just as fun as you'd expect it to be.

Some may be wondering what the 'Game of the Week' is and I'd be glad to let them know, but we're still in the process of covering important releases that need to be considered for this stamp of approval. For now you can consider Waking Mars to be a personal recommendation to anyone after something unique and full of gameplay elements that lend itself to an intriguing sci-fi storyline. Until next week you can keep track of our news and reviews via Twitter or Facebook. As always drop a comment below and feel free to like and subscribe to let us know we're loved! Have a great weekend!